Currently, hearing-impaired users communicate with representatives of entities, such as financial services companies, through TDD (telecommunications devices for the deaf) and TTY (telephone typewriter) devices. This process requires a third party to relay information between the user and the representative. The third party receives TDD/TTY signals and verbally relays the information to the representative, and then receives spoken information from the representative and provides it via TDD/TTY to the user. This often leads to confusion for the hearing-impaired user and the representative. Additionally, the presence of a third party, unknown to the user, presents potential security concerns for the user.
As an example, Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS), is an operator service that allows people who are hearing-impaired to place calls to standard telephone systems via TDD/TTY, personal computer, or other assistive telephone devices. A common type of TRS call involves a call from a person who is hearing-impaired and utilizes a TDD/TTY to a person who is not hearing impaired and can both hear and speak. In such a call, typed messages are relayed as voice messages by a TRS operator, and vice-versa. This allows callers who are unable to use a standard telephone to be able to place telephone calls to people who use a standard telephone, and vice-versa. When the person who is hearing is ready for a response, it is customary for that person to say “Go Ahead” or “GA” to indicate that it is the TDD/TTY user's turn to talk, and “Stop Keying”, “SK”, or “Ready to hang up” when it is time to hang up, and vice-versa. Hence, this process is time-consuming, expensive, and may be frustrating for both the calling party and the recipient of the call.